And the Fair Land

'For all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators.'

Updated Nov. 24, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

Any one whose labors take him into the far reaches of the country, as ours lately have done, is bound to mark how the years have made the land grow fruitful.

This is indeed a big country, a rich country, in a way no array of figures can measure and so in a way past belief of those who have not seen it. Even those who journey through its Northeastern complex, into the Southern lands, across the central plains and to its Western slopes can only glimpse a measure of the bounty of America.

And a traveler cannot but be struck on his journey by the thought that this country, one day, can be even greater. America, though many know it not, is one of the great underdeveloped countries of the world; what it reaches for exceeds by far what it has grasped.

So the visitor returns thankful for much of what he has seen, and, in spite of everything, an optimist about what his country might be. Yet the visitor, if he is to make an honest report, must also note the air of unease that hangs everywhere.

For the traveler, as travelers have been always, is as much questioned as questioning. And for all the abundance he sees, he finds the questions put to him ask where men may repair for succor from the troubles that beset them.

His countrymen cannot forget the savage face of war. Too often they have been asked to fight in strange and distant places, for no clear purpose they could see and for no accomplishment they can measure. Their spirits are not quieted by the thought that the good and pleasant bounty that surrounds them can be destroyed in an instant by a single bomb. Yet they find no escape, for their survival and comfort now depend on unpredictable strangers in far-off corners of the globe.

How can they turn from melancholy when at home they see young arrayed against old, black against white, neighbor against neighbor, so that they stand in peril of social discord. Or not despair when they see that the cities and countryside are in need of repair, yet find themselves threatened by scarcities of the resources that sustain their way of life. Or when, in the face of these challenges, they turn for leadership to men in high places—only to find those men as frail as any others.

So sometimes the traveler is asked whence will come their succor. What is to preserve their abundance, or even their civility? How can they pass on to their children a nation as strong and free as the one they inherited from their forefathers? How is their country to endure these cruel storms that beset it from without and from within?

Of course the stranger cannot quiet their spirits. For it is true that everywhere men turn their eyes today much of the world has a truly wild and savage hue. No man, if he be truthful, can say that the specter of war is banished. Nor can he say that when men or communities are put upon their own resources they are sure of solace; nor be sure that men of diverse kinds and diverse views can live peaceably together in a time of troubles.

But we can all remind ourselves that the richness of this country was not born in the resources of the earth, though they be plentiful, but in the men that took its measure. For that reminder is everywhere—in the cities, towns, farms, roads, factories, homes, hospitals, schools that spread everywhere over that wilderness.

We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth.

And we might remind ourselves also, that if those men setting out from Delftshaven had been daunted by the troubles they saw around them, then we could not this autumn be thankful for a fair land.

I don't know if that is really true anymore. Freedom is a relative thing, but there is definitely less and less of it with every passing year, and of late, the cause of freedom has suffered dramatically. At what point do "free men" become slaves to the collectivist mindset?

No kings or tyrants? Clearly this article is outdated because it fails to recognize our boy Sun King and his army of petty tyrants in the Federal government menacing the people while protecting our enemies here and abroad. Too many Americans seem to be fine with that, having regressed to being serfs, wards of the state, rather than free born citizens of a great republic.

Today they willingly line up to be strip searched and groped; tomorrow these two legged grass eating cattle will line up at slaughter pens at government run stockyards because some Eco-messiah like Al Gore or Prince Charles complains Earth has too many people.

I think Mr. Dennis Miller in his HBO special has it about right. Help for the Helpless, Lord, Yes! But not one *#$$!!# DIME for the clueless!. And that is what the no nukers, earth firsters and socialists are. in a few generations, if they interbreed, they may be too dumb to pick up their welfare check. before that, they may bankrupt the nation.

For those of you who think that this nation is just an inevitible outcome of the "progress" of mankind please read 1776 by David McCullough. I just watched again PBS's Liberty! The American Revolution and HBO's John Adams. We are truly blessed in our collection founders warts and all. I have no doubt the the stature of those men and women far outweigh anyone in Congress or the White House. No one even has the concept of pledging their lives, property and sacred honor for the cause of freedom. Enjoy and be thankful for this great nation while she lasts.

'For all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators.'

I think this is why it is so hard for Socialism as an economic policy to take effect and why a whole lot of us are trying to resist the current government intrusion into our personal lives and attempt to exert dictatorial control over us.

In countries where there has been a history of kings or dictators, it is so much easier for socialism and communism to take over and exist. The history of England for example has been peasants and serfs controlled by kings and queens. They took care of the little people on the land not always in a good way, but the common people were just used to it and expected it. It appears that most people take the path of least resistance. If a king or dictator tells the people they will take care of them, give them money, food and shelter, people who have not experienced liberty and personal responsibility will generally go along with this. It is a lot easier to be given a fish than to have to get up at dawn and do the fishing themselves.

That is why America is different, there were a lot of people who decided that freedom and liberty were a lot more important to them then the intrusive governance of kings and dictators who "governed" at their whim. It is hard to take personal responsibility, it is hard to get your own food, it is hard to build your own shelter, it is hard being on your own, but those who value freedom and liberty gladly make the sacrifce.

Fortunately, there are still a lot of us who still have that personal responsibility gene and don't want no stinkin King to rule over us.

We remain the most undeveloped nation on earth. We remain the only nation on earth that has practiced, no worshiped, the Cycle of Economic Development (poor become rich and rich become poor through productivity or the lack thereof) and we have and will prosper from it. Over the next 150 years we will increase our population by a factor of 4 and have more people than China. Our current debt can be paid-off in a mere 25 years, one-generation, by growing expenditures 2 percentage points less than our growth in government income. We can provide healthcare for all by adopting term-life insurance practices for healthcare, we can better educate our children by educating their parents of their duty to be their children's primary educators, and there's so many other things we can do to make this country even greater.

We can't see so many wonderful things that are coming down the road. As strong as Washington appears to be and even worse, appearing to be getting even stronger, the reality is that the internet is causing a decentralization of that power. Over the next 50 years we will not have Washington as we know it today. Within 100 years everything will be under USGIP (United States Governance Intellectual Property) and every person on earth will have the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happyness.

We have much to have been thankful for. We have much to be thankful for. But, we can't even imagine how much we are going to be thankful for in the future!

I think it’s clear that all the problems mentioned in the article, -problems that exist, more or less, in most of the countries of the world today-, are caused by man.

So we read that man, the one who creates all these unpalatable situations, will be the one who will eventually point out the solution of the problem. This is for sure a hopeful thought, which nevertheless I cannot see how exactly will materialize, unless man makes an effort to see things also from a different perspective. Is it possible that one should start thinking more broadly, in order to stop acting erroneously? Is it possible that one should re-examine the values of life? Socrates in his Apology (Plato, Apology) stressed that while he had life, he would never cease teaching philosophy, advising and revealing the truth to those who cared only about how to gain money, reputation and honour, while trying not in the least to achieve the greatest improvement of the soul, a behaviour which Socrates considered shameful. So, is it possible that also today man does not bestow to the soul the worthiness it deserves? The following abstract from the book “The Next Step of Creation- The Revelation”of the author Ioannis G. Tsatsaris constitutes to my point of view a reference of highest importance on the essence and the importance of the soul:

“Within this reality of things, man has to think of his Soul, which he still has neither sensed, discovered, nor approached. (...) Man, above all, has a Soul. The Soul creates a sensory factor, unites it with a material factor, and thus sensory and material factors collaborate in their life – progressing state activated by the energy provided by the Soul. (...) the immutable, that is, the Soul, is that which we must follow as a symbol, as an authority, as life, as beauty, as relation and as whatever a person needs here on Earth so as to sustain himself in his consummated position as an individual. And the body is to accompany the Soul.”

A society without internal divisions is not free. In the totalitarian society the left wants to create, dissent will no longer be necessary.

By the way, the author is wrong about the time. Rome was free of kings for 460 years before Sulla. It was never free again after Caesar. Do not take for granted that things will stay the way they are. Freedom must be guarded, and in the case of America the guards are either asleep or selling the gate keys.

I'll say this, within the last 5 years, I have travelled on the back roads through Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Oregon, California - perhaps that's about it, but, I will report that each of these states possesses a beauty so rare and unique and still pristine (believe it or not) that its denizens are surely mad for it. The same likely is true for other states.

Most likely don't get to travel in early Fall or late Spring, but you would be amazed at how wonderfully sublime off season travel in United States really is. Take a river road or route 66. Why not?

Happy thanksgiving! I think it pertinent that this column has appeared for the last 25 years or so everyday before thanksgiving. It gives a great perspective to the spirit of the founding of the country. It is also still exists today.

For the traveler, as travelers have been always, is as much questioned as questioning.

And I ask it of myself most every day - what shall I do good tomorrow. More and more often, I tell myself "work and love."

Too often they have been asked to fight in strange and distant places --- first when I was 18 and FDR lowered the draft age. Many times since. I hired his father for the 1964 World's Fair. Yesterday, his father wrote that this now hardened, still young officer is going to Afghanistan for a second tour.

We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Sometimes it's "fight, work and love."

Perhaps, but there walk among us men and women who would remove our liberties and substitute "rights" in an effort to assure their continuance in power forever. They say they have brought forth a "Messiah" or "Prophet" to lead the people out of the "darkness" of the last administration. We have seen the results, all too frequently in history, of believing in such. Never forget that those we send to our Nation's capital to represent us all too often succumb to the siren song of power, to our detriment. Do not confuse "rights" with liberty. Our Constitution guarantees each of us the opportunity to seek life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It does not, and, in fact, must not, guarantee equality of outcome.

I'm hopeful that rancor between folks with differing opinions aside, we all have the presence of mind still to be profoundly grateful for the good fortune we all do have to be able to live in "free" countries (warts and all), with all the graces our systems are able to enable us with, and sufficient robustness that we will get through these current times (perhaps not like we would like to imagine, but ...) intact and with optimistic possibilities ahead nonetheless.

Despite all the critics, America is that shining city on a hill where individuals can make their dreams come true, benefitting themselves and the society around them. America has been great because the government has mostly allowed its citizenry to, in Jefferson's words, pursue life, liberty and property free of the restraining hand of the government. It's altogether fitting to pause and give thanks for our founders and for the blessings of liberty at this time of the year.

I think the key word was "continuous" in the article, and I do not think the Swiss were considered a single unified nation until the early 1800s. Before that they were under the influence of France who had conquered them and imposed a constitution on them, before that they were more a loose set of cantons though there was a confederacy many belonged to (which the Swiss federal state today does not resemble).

Dominican Republic (Trujillo, a military dictator for 32 years) with US support for most of that time; Belaguer, Trujillo's protégé, installed after US Marines intervened to put down an attempt to restore the democratically elected government of Juan Bosch 1930-61, 1965-78

El Salvador 1980s 35,000 civilians are killed in 1978-81. The rape and murder of four U.S. churchwomen

Nepal monarchy since 1948

Cuba (Fulgencio Batista) pre-Castro

Brazil (Gen. Branco) overthrew elected president Goulart with US support 1965-67

Uzbekistan (Kamirov "The Boiler"), $150M from the Bush administration for an air base. 1965-67

I wholeheartedly agree with you. This country has never failed me or my forebears, and it will not fail me or my children in the future. The DNA of America is too strong to be changed by the movement de jour. These swings go back and forth and will continue to do so... sometimes we need to go through the sort of movements we see today in order to realize what we do not like and to wake up and take action.

Some of these people will never understand what it is to be free. They sit here awash in it, yet take it for granted, all the while whining about how imperfect this or that is. Freedom is no guarantee of success, luxury, or protection from bad things. No guarantee of a roof over your head, a full stomach, or health care. Freedom is about the ability to seek those things on your own merit, and not via the takings from others. And as the Founders knew, freedom is not comfort and not ease. Freedom is challenge, and must constantly be defended against those that would have us trade it away for a little convenience here or there.

Some of the people here remind me of the Loyalists who sided with King George. He would be happy with them. To bad he is not around anymore to take care of his long-lost royal subjects. But his spirit lives in the ever persistent appetites of government power.

Rob, many diseases spread when we pass them on to others. Propping up Dictators spreads the disease of tyranny around the world. Not the role our founding fathers hoped we would have in the world. Please point to a Dictator on my list that we would have perished if we had not supported.

Most of the Dictators we supported were for financial reasons not political. US businesses came to the realization long ago that Dictators like their “no bid” large infrastructure projects to go to those that support their regime. Democracies are not as profitable in this regard since they have citizens watching every penny, trade deal and competitive bidding for large infrastructure projects.

Indeed, Mr. Hammons does. Mr. Elmo is begging for the government to enslave him, and then take care of him. It should be said that those who came to the USA yesterday for the purpose of exercising their freedom are far greater as Americans than those like Mr. Elmo, who would have us degenerate into a society from 1,000 years ago just so they could get "free stuff."

To hell with "free" things- I will give up what little I have in return for a guarantee that I will be a free man, now and forever.

There are things to be thankful for, however. The American people are awakening to this, and they will respond in the elections of 2010

Also, don't forget, the Creator, the one who endowed us with "certain inalienable rights" might not be too happy that some central planner is trying to destroy them.

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